As many of our readers know by now, blockchain is an architecture that allows users to conduct transactions with each other and create an unchangeable, secure record of those transactions. As such, it has attracted an enormous amount of interest by technologists in finance, healthcare, supply chains, shipping, energy and even election voting.

“The applications are endless,” is a common refrain. Another is “blockchain technology will be the next TCP/IP of finance.”

In this new article, Computerworld senior writer, Lucas Mearian, gives us a three-page course on the current state of blockchain adoption across many industries and a look at the challenges they each face. Finally, he gives us a look at the possible future of blockchain deployments and their role in transforming business practices for efficiency, speed and security.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) is looking at the possibility of using today’s distributed ledger technology to bring speed, security and other efficiencies to monitoring swap transactions in what is called “Swaps Regulation 2.0.”

The current consideration envisions the CFTC as a supervisory node in a distributed ledger platform, poised to monitor swap transactions as they take place.

In this new Blockchain + The Law article by Cheryl Aaron, a regulator node is described as possibly being a considerable advantage to both regulators and regulated entities. It could enable participants to better comply with their reporting and recordkeeping requirements by accessing the data they need “to properly understand and regulate the market without any intermediaries, and potentially for a lower cost.”

Paul A. Jones, writing for Michael Best’s Best Venture has some advice on whether to take your startup to Silicon Valley in search of venture capital.

While on one hand, Silicon Valley might be the fastest way to determine whether your startup is “venture-worthy” by Valley standards, he sees many more appropriate venture opportunities elsewhere, depending on the type of startup you are launching.

He writes: “Over the last couple of days, it gelled that some entrepreneurs might fail to raise capital in Silicon Valley – not because their startup is not worthy of investment, but because they are not ready to play on that particular stage. In which case, going to Silicon Valley may result in failing to get a startup financed not because it was a bad idea, but because venture capital’s Broadway was not where it should have started out.”

Just days ago, the American Express FX International Payments (FXIP) division and Ripple, an enterprise global blockchain solution company, announced a joint payment-transfer solution designed to reduce the time and cost of transfer payments to settle, providing a host of benefits for both business-to-business buyers and sellers.